Sex trafficking is nothing new. It has been in existence
since ancient civilization when women and children in great numbers
were traded in marketplace. They did not only end up as plantation
or domestic slaves, many also became sex-slaves to their masters.

Presently, the number of women and children who fall prey to the
sex trade, within and outside the country, continues to rise through
sex-trafficking. The current Philippine government under President
Joseph Estrada has turned a blind eye to its existence. Sex trafficking
is little known or understood by Filipinos, men and women alike.
What is sex trafficking? Why does it persist? These are the questions
this primer will try to answer.

What is sex trafficking?

Sex trafficking is the transport of people, often women
and children, from one place to another within and across borders
for sex trade and sexual exploitation. In most cases victims were
forced into the sex trade by use of threat, intimidation and deception.
The victims, wiitingly or unwittingly, end up in prostitution.

Who usually become victims of sex-trafficking?

According to the research of Women Education Development Productivity
Research Organization (WEDPRO), the victims of sex trafficking are
usually women and children from poor families in rural and urban
areas with little or no education and with limited skills and knowledge.

A study by Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CARW) revealed
that a large number of women victims of sex-trafficking are single
or single mothers, women who have experienced sexual abuse and exploitation
or had been in unsuccessful marriages and /or abusive relationships.

Why does the problem of sex-trafficking exist and
persist in the Philippines?

As poverty worsens and living conditions deteriorate, the number
of women and children who become vulnerable to sex-trade increases.
As the crisis intensifies, women's economic rights are incessantly
infringed upon. Presently, women and children make up the largest
section of the reserved labor force. According to government reports,
the number of unemployed has reached 3.9 million and 40% of these
are women. (Philippine Star, June 12, 1999)

Philippine society remains semi-feudal and semi-colonial. The economy
remains "export-oriented and "import-dependent" 
the reason for the country's continued widespread poverty. The implementation
of the policies of privatization, liberalization and deregulation
has meant greater exploitation of the Filipino masses. The Estrada
administration warned that wage increase will result in the rise
of prices and the devaluation of the currency, an increase in the
unemployment rate and will drive foreign investors out of the country.
(Manila Times, April 30, 1999) The Estrada administration falls
short in admitting that the country's economy depends so much on
foreign investors whose interest is not the welfare of our people
but their capital gains.

With the advent of imperialist globalization, underdeveloped countries
like the Philippines are fast removing economic barriers in the
name of "free trade". Particularly in the Philippines,
this means unhindered entry of imported products and capital and
the export of raw materials. It also means repatriation of profits
in collaboration with big land owners and bureaucrat capitalists
in the country. The implementation of these economic programs has
also been accelerated under the dictate of the IMF-WB through the
Structural Adjustment Policy (SAP) and the General Agreement on
Tariff and Trade  World Trade Organization (GATT-WTO).

With the so-called "free-trade" among countries, legal
barriers are gradually being eroded to make prostitution legitimate,
especially in semi-colonial countries like the Philippines. Under
these circumstances women become more vulnerable to exploitation
in "sex-trade" and prostitution. The number of women and
children in prostitution will rise even faster when and if prostitution
is loosely defined as "work" or "sex-work".
At present, there are approximately 600,000 prostitutes in the Philippines.
50,000 to 60,000 of this are children forced into prostitution.

Low regard for women persists as perpetuated by the church, home,
school and mass media. Not only women's labor power but women's
bodies has become a commodity. This is due to the fact that the
feudal-patriarchal system is maintained together with the bourgoise
thinking towards women. It is evident that under these circumstances
women shall never become equal with men and will remain second class
citizens.

The crisis experienced by Filipinos has put women and children
in situations that make them vulnerable to exploitation. Amidst
intense poverty and with imperialist globalization, more and more
women will fall prey and or will be forced to prostitution.

Why does sex-trafficking happen?

Particular to the Philippines, policies such as the labor export
policy, tourism program and the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA)
has clearly become a mode and a vehicle for sex-trafficking within
and outside the country. Marriage burueas where Filipino women leave
the country as fiancée or wives of foreigners or "mail-order
bride" is also a channel of trafficking in women.

The Philippine Government's Labor Export Policy

Before the 1970's working abroad was an individual solution to
poverty. Labor export has become widespread when the Marcos administration
adopted it as an official policy.

Today, labor export has become an instrument to lure women into
prostitution and turn the sex trade into big business. The labor
export policy entices Filipino women out of the country through
registered "recruitment agencies". There are an estimated
7-8 million Filipino workers abroad.

The Philippines remains as one of the primary labor exporters of
women as domestic helpers, entertainers and factory workers. About
60 to 80 percent or six to eight out of every ten Filipino overseas
workers are women who work as domestic helpers or entertainers.
They are found in 168 countries in seven continents. In the first
ten months of 1998, 640,054 Filipinos left the country to work abroad.
In 1998, an increase of 3.5 percent was noted in the number of domestic
helpers who left for abroad compared to the previous year.

The illegal trasnport of people have been commonly used. Potential
workers leave the country with fake documents. Illegal recruiters
and syndicates also try to bring women out of the country through
the backdoor  in Western Mindanao and Palawan  heading
towards Malaysia and Indonesia aboard small motor boats or pumpboats.
In some cases potential workers are smuggled out of the country
aboard international sea vessels, private airplanes and even commercial
planes.

Hence, the number of undocumented workers abroad continues to grow.
There is an estimated 80,000 undocumented workers in South Korea
aside from the 130,000 documented workers. In Japan, where Filipino
women often end up as entertainers, 35,200 are illegal in addition
to the documented 220,000.

It was reported that 22 entertainers have disappeared in Japan.
This year, five women brought to Japan as entertainers were forced
to undress and have sex with Japanese clients in front of other
customers. (Abante, July 9, 1999)

Some Filipino women working aborad are forced to sell their bodies
because of difficult situations encountered while working in foreign
lands. According to a research done by the Center for Women's Resources
(CWR) on the societal effects of migration, many undocumented Filipino
women in Saudi Arabia and those who overstay in Hongkong sell their
bodies in order to survive.

The Tourism Program

Tourism is always one of the top dollar earners for the Philippines.
In five years the dollar earning of the government from tourism
increased by 256%, from US$ 842 million in 1992 to US$ 3 billion
in 1997. The number of tourists entering the country in 1997 reached
2.2 million, up from just 1.151 million in 1992. (Term-Ender, CWR,
1998)

While the Tourism program gives income to the government, on the
other hand, it creates and expands permanent structures which makes
prostitution an enticing option for women despaired by extreme poverty.

The use of women's bodies as commodity for profit, for pleasure
and sexual satisfaction happens in brothels and sex dens. Beerhouses,
clubs, massage parlors and karaoke bars which flourish in places
intended for tourism can become and have become fronts for prostitution.

Many women fall prey to sex-trade in the course of finding a decent
job abroad. In the Philippines, a newspaper reported the story of
girl children aged 13 to 16 who ended up working as bar girls in
Nueva Ecija. They were recruited to work as salesgirls in a mall
in Cabanatuan City in Central Luzon.

The Visiting Forces Agreement

The rise in prostitution is expected with the ratification of the
Visiting force Agreement (VFA). Twenty-two ports all over the Philippines
will be sites for U.S. military exercises. Expectedly, peripheral
areas will also be rest and recreation sanctuaries of the American
forces. In the midst of extreme poverty, women from the poor and
far-flung provinces will be lured and will engage in prostitution
as a means of survival.

In 1991, a few months before the U.S. bases pulled out of the Philippines,
there were around 55,000 Filipino women and children working as
"women entertainers" in Olongapo and Angeles City alone,
the site of the two biggest US military bases.

In the 1970's at the height of the Vietnam War, 9,000 U.S. military
personnel arrive daily in Olongapo for the rest and recreation.

The presence of women has become a necessity to the American soldier
to temporarily get their mind off the atrocities of the war. (CWR
Term-Ender, 1998)

With the VFA, women and children are expected to arrive in droves
in places near the US military stations where brothels, clubs, karaoke
bars, beerhouses and massage parlors will sprout like mushrooms.

Mail-Order Bride

The rise in the number of Filipina mail-order brides (MOB) who
leave the country as fiancée of foreigners is also notable.
The system of mail-order bride is another instrument to traffick
women. According to the Commission on Overseas Filipinos 148,074
Filipinas left the country from 1989 to 1998 either as fiancée
or wife of foreign nationals.

Cross-cultural marriages is not the problem The problem is that
there are syndicates who use these to recruit women into prostitution.
These women end up being the sex-slaves of their supposed-husband
and/or are pimped to other men. These syndicates capitalize on the
internet and the e-mail to advertise Filipinas as "penpals"
to circumvent the law banning the system of mail-order-bride.

An alarming number of women and children have been lured into the
sex trade in their quest for a decent life abroad, becoming sex-slaves
in bars, night clubs, brothels and sex-farms instead.

Who is behind the sex trafficking? Who profits from
it?

According to Aurora de Dios, Excutive Director of CATW, the international
sex-trade is worth $17B. Strip clubs alone earn a total of $2 B
every year ( Manila Times, May 28, 1999). A sex trafficker earns
big money because a Filipina sells from US$3,000.00 to US$5000 in
the international sex trade.

In Angeles City, sex tours have become a fad. A sex tour which
includes a roundtrip fare, 12 nights in the country and the choice
of women escort for the night costs US$2,195. The woman is paid
a measly amount of P600.00 for the whole night. (IMA Newsletter,
1997)

A prostitute in Cebu testified that a tourist guide and a bar-owner
pimps her to Japanese men for P10,000.00. The bar owner P8,000.00
and the tourist guide P1,500.00 while she only get P500.

This is the reason why prostitution will remain a big business.
The problem of prostitution and sex-trafficking will continue to
befall women because big syndicates and individuals in sex trafficking
earn big and easy money through this system. Not only that, sex
trade continues to boom with police protection. Bar operators accordingly
spend P5 M for police protection (PDI, 21 April 1999)

Even government agencies earn in the sex trade through tariffs
and taxes. According to an ILO report, sex trade contributes 2 to
14 percent of the gross domestic product of the countried Thailand,
Malaysia and the Philippines. In fact, there is a de facto legalization
of prostitution in the Philippines with the local government units
giving licenses to the so-called "commercial sex workers"
(CSW) and Guest Relations Officer (GRO) and to the establishments
employing these women. These women are considered as workers and
the establishment-owners as employers.

Through tax and tariff from the sex-trade, governments of capitalists
countries or the receiving countries also get their share.

How does the government perpetuate and aggravate
the problem of sex-trafficking?

Particularly in the Philippines, the rise in sex-trafficking is
brought about by the policies of the government that is under the
control of the International Monetary Fund-World Bank (IMF-WB) and
totally subordinate to the imperialist powers especially the United
States.

The programs and policies of the Estrada government have spawned
extreme and rampant poverty which affect women.

Its labor export policy, tourism program and the Visiting Forces
Agreement are indisputable channels or instruments for the trafficking
in Filipino women in and out of the country. The government has
allowed the spread of facilities, services and businesses which
have become fronts of prostitution, contributing significantly to
the income of the government though the tourism program.

No remedies or solution can be expected from a government which
has shown no regard for women issues. The Estrada government has
not hidden its macho-fascist character. If the Aquino and Ramos
governments have made a "show" of addressing women's issues,
the Estrada government has not even made any pretext of interest
in Filipino women's concerns. We can only expect the current government
to dismiss the gravity of sex-trafficking of Filipino women and
children.